30 Day Cooking

A few times per year, I try to get together with a friend or two to do some 30 day cooking. I first heard about this type of cooking from Mom 2 Mom in Bloomington, Illinois (back in 2000). I honestly cannot remember who I cooked with first or how many times I've done it, but I fondly remember the hours that I've spent with dear friends slaving away over the stove with the goal of filling the freezer with enough food to feed my family for a month! I am the type of person who will work extra hard to find a way to do something better, faster or easier. Even though 30 day cooking is a lot of work, I find it much more preferable to figuring out what to cook on a daily basis.

A few weeks ago, I was realizing that our family's schedule has gotten busier with school activities and other involvements - and it is getting more and more difficult to spend time making a quailty meal for my family of an evening. McDonalds and frozen pizza only get you so far! So, I e-mailed three girls (Natalie, Paula & Marsha) in our new small group to explain the idea and see if they were interested or had heard of it. None of the three had cooked this way before, but all three wanted to try it! So, we started planning!

We got together one evening for a "girls' night out" recipe planning party! We chose the recipes that we all wanted to try out. Then, groups of 2 or 3 of us got together on other occasions to type in the recipes, plan out the shopping day, multiply ingredients, tally ingredients and make a shopping list.

Thursday, Marsha & I got together to shop for dry goods - 1st at Sam's Club, then at Wal-Mart. Because of time constraints with picking up kids from school, stores opening late, etc. - we had to split the shopping into two days. On Friday, we picked up the rest of the cold/frozen foods at Wal-Mart, then Sam's. When you are grocery shopping for a month's worth of food for four families, you get quite a few stares! Just to give you an idea, we bought 40 pounds of pork chops, eleven 6 pound bags of frozen chicken breasts, six 5 pound round roasts, 20 cans of cream of potato soup, 7 food service sized cans of fruit cocktail, five 6 packs of green, yellow & red peppers, etc. etc. etc. It was hilarious!

Marsha & I checking out at Sam's Club during the cold/frozen shopping trip! Almost the entire conveyor belt is meat - plus more in the cart!

On Friday, Marsha browned 10 pounds of ground beef, Natalie threw the roasts into the crockpots (4 of them) before bed and everyone gathered the largest stock pots, bowls and measuring cups they could find! Saturday, we met at Natalie's house bright & early to begin cooking at 8:00 a.m. We had 16 recipes to complete - 13 main dishes & 3 sides. We multiplied most recipes by 8 so each family could go home with two.

Natalie & Marsha chopping chicken & peppers!

After 12 hours, a few ingredient miscalculations - resulting in two trips to the store & two trips to Paula's house - and a family emergency (Natalie's mom had a heart attack, so she spent most of the day at the hospital!), we finished everything!! (Plus, Natalie is about 35 weeks pregnant, Paula is nursing a baby and Marsha had surgery on her toe the day before!)Poor Paula doesn't eat red meat, agreed to cook it for her family anyway - and ended up being the one to handle both the steak & pork chops! Sorry, Paula!!

For $212 per family, we each took home:

25 family-sized main dishes, 3 lunch-sized main dishes and 10 side dishes!

Natalie's freezer - not quite all of the food packed in yet! Her husband, John, went out of his way to help us out while Natalie was at the hospital. He was a huge help!

I consider that a very successful cooking day! So today, we are each taking time to rest & recouperate! I hope we can plan another cooking day soon (but not too soon!).

(The recipes we cooked include: Chicken marinade (two varieties), Steak marinade, Chicken Chili, Cheese Veggie Soup, Chicken Chowder, Italian Beef, Apple Glazed Pork Chops, Raspberry Tilapia, Citrus Fish Marinade, Spanish Chicken & Rice, Fruit Slush, Sweet Potato & Squash Bake, Chicken Fajitas, Wet Burrito, Meatballs and Orange Glazed Carrots!)